LOS ANGELES ? ?Make metro cool.? That was Michael Lejeune?s task 10 years ago when he was hired as the first creative director of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The brief was difficult, given this city?s deeply rooted car culture, but Mr. Lejeune, a native of Los Angeles, said he relished the task of making over the image of the third-largest mass-transit system in the United States.
?Public transportation was in the blind spot in Los Angeles because we?re such a car-centric place,? Mr. Lejeune said in an interview on Thursday at the Hammer Museum of the?University of California, Los Angeles, ?before delivering a lecture titled ?Michael Lejeune: A Cooler Ride.?
?Unless you had to take public transportation, the majority of people thought that?s not for me,? he said.
With support from 20 internal writers, photographers and other creative hires, Mr. Lejeune, 49, began chipping away at the blind spot he perceived. One of his team?s early efforts was to shift how people spoke about the M.T.A. ?The Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Authority? How friendly is that?? he quipped during the lecture. He ditched the verbiage in favor of a new tagline: ?Metropolitan Transit Authority? Oh, please. Just say Go Metro.?
He said he was still in disbelief that the slogan had been approved, and that a tongue-in-cheek tag, ?Plan your next trip, man,? in which two flower children mugged from the same poster, had found its way into the cityscape.
Playful slogans are one thing; getting commuters to use the city?s rails and buses more often is another, and Mr. Lejeune claimed that the makeover had been effective.
?After 18 months of advertising (the period after our new campaigns and increased exposure broke, nine years ago), discretionary ridership rose 8 percent,? Mr. Lejeune wrote in a follow-up e-mail. ?At the time, that was double the national average increase. And we had not significantly added or changed our service over that period, so we do see the correlation between messaging and an increase in choice ridership,? he added. The mayor?s office, meanwhile, has noted that rail ridership has increased 38 percent since 2005.
At the Hammer, Mr. Lejeune discussed how the M.T.A. was using geographically focused advertising, which was intended to put a more neighborly than institutional face on the system. An ad in the Crenshaw section of Los Angeles reads, ?Crenshaw just got Rapid. Metro Rapid. Fast. Frequent. Fabulous.? The creative team also participates in the annual West Hollywood Pride Parade, walking behind a banner that reads ?Ride With Pride.?
Mr. Lejeune and company are also responsible for the M.T.A.?s billboards, mobile applications, public arts program, television commercials, merchandising and even the office security badges.
The team has taken advantage of the M.T.A.?s internal paint shop to recast rapid buses in red and locals in orange ? or California Poppy, according to the authority?s literature ? a welcome change from their dour white past.
Among the group?s greatest challenges is to ensure that Angelenos do not give up on the transit system after the approval of a $40 billion, 30-year transportation package in 2008. As part of the revitalization efforts, Los Angeles County is scheduled to build new carpool lanes, an extension of the Exposition Light Rail Line to Santa Monica ? expected to open in 2015 ? and new bike lanes. To keep ridership high, the M.T.A. has begun a campaign with the tagline ?In the Works,? detailing the planned improvements.
Lest Mr. Lejeune be accused of not patronizing the system he promotes, he talked about his 35-minute commute on the Gold Line. ?I read and I pay bills and I work and I talk to people,? Mr. Lejeune said. ?I used to drive two hours a day, so this job is karma for me.?
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